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Authorship Guidelines

It is important that the correct list of authors is attributed to an article from the start of the submission process. Author lists with the incorrect information can result in academic or financial implications, whilst also providing the reader with the wrong information on where the responsibility and accountability for the published work should lie.

All authors listed on a submission must have given prior approval to have their name attributed to the file(s) that are being submitted and agree to the publication. The corresponding author has responsibility to ensure that all authors qualify for, and have agreed to, authorship of the submission. They are also responsible for informing all co-authors of relevant editorial information during the review process.

Our recommendations are based on the ICMJE criteria for authorship. Authors must have:

made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work

contributed to the drafting the work, or revising it critically for important intellectual content

provided final approval of the version to be published

agreed to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved

agreed to be named on the author list, and approved of the full author list

Those that meet some but do not meet all of the above criteria should be acknowledged in the publication but not listed as an author. Examples that do not qualify for authorship but should be acknowledged are sources of funding, supervision of research groups, administrative support, language editing and proof reading. Written permission should be obtained from those being acknowledged, as in some cases being named in such a way may be seen as an endorsement of the publication.